LL-L "Language politics" 2008.07.22 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 22 July 2008 - Volume 02
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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar"

Beste Lowlanners,

again I'd like to pick up our discussion about grammar.

Today I happened to read about *Eike von Repgow*, the author of the
'Sachsenspiegel', a work written in the 13th c. in Middle Low Saxon.
According to the Wikipedia

German:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eike_von_Repgow#S.C3.A4chsische_Weltchronik )
English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eike_von_Repgow

he just had a 'basic' knowledge of grammar, which he probably had learned
from any secular priest. It's not proved or sure that he could write himself
but supposedly had hired any scribe to whom he made dictates.

So, I'm  wondering: a famous, quite well educated author of an epochal piece
of literature presumably just had a small knowledge about the grammar of his
language. Who, how many people, had a better one? Who set up the rules? And:
how did 'normal', less educated people speak?

Had there been another, possibly very different language (with various
dialects) that could have been closer to Modern Low Saxon, which, as some of
you might have realized *s*, I meanwhile aspect as a language preferably to
speak, less suited to write? I'm quite aware of the fact that there are
always(?) big differences between spoken and written language. But the
author of the 'Sachsenspiegel' just being capable to act on a low level of
grammar makes my view of the linguistic world wamble. Where are you gone,
all your old fashioned correctness and straight grammatics? Just a
theoretical framework for a handful of scholars?

Somehow disappointing and disillusioning, but perhaps this view gives a new
chance to explain the big difference between Middle Low Saxon and the
varieties of Modern Low Saxon. Middle Low Saxon probably wasn't the 'mother'
of Modern Low Saxon, just the nurse...

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm

•

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